George Douglas Freeth Jr. (November 8, 1883 – April 7, 1919) was an American lifeguard, surfer, and swimming instructor of English and Native Hawaiian descent.

He became a well-known swimming coach as well while working at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, training Olympic swimmers such as Duke Kahanamoku, Ludy Langer, and Ray Kegeris.

Green's most important contribution was negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1875, ensuring that sugar remained a dominant industry in Hawai`i.

[4] Freeth's blend of heritages allowed him to bridge distinct cultures connecting him both to Western ideals of modernity and innovations and to Native Hawaiian aquatic traditions, including surfing.

Aquatic sports were a large part of his early youth, where competitions (such as rowing and diving) allowed Freeth to develop the water skills that he would use throughout his life.

Laysan was (and is) home to a large migrant seabird population that produced guano, which Freeth Senior's company mined for fertilizer.

While Freeth competed in California, his mother began divorce proceedings against his father who had abandoned the family and refused to send money home.

[12] Freeth also taught writer Jack London, who wrote about the experience in his essay "Riding The South Seas Surf" (1907).

The Hawaii Promotion Committee (HPC), formed in 1903 to increase tourism to the islands, played an important role in Freeth's career.

In March 1907, the HPC invited the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to visit Honolulu, where they observed Freeth performing a diving show at the Hotel Baths.

The committee believed Freeth was the ideal ambassador to showcase surfing in Los Angeles as he had an Anglo-Hawaiian heritage and mastered the sport.

In July 1907, he arrived at Venice Beach to perform surfing exhibitions and to work for the real estate developer Abbot Kinney.

The Lifesaving Corps was begun by Venice's founder, Abbot Kinney, after two local men drowned a couple months before Freeth arrived.

Freeth asked the council to purchase new equipment for the lifeguards: a reel-and-buoy system mounted onto a tripod, and the three-wheeled motorcycle that he had pioneered in Redondo Beach six years before.

After Freeth demonstrated his new equipment and training regimen to the city council, they were so impressed with his results that they considered putting him in charge of lifeguards at all the beaches in San Diego.

Freeth also gave surfing lessons to children, teaching them to understand waves and currents, which was crucial knowledge for the development of California Beach Culture.

He named it Hui Nalu, after the famous club in Waikiki, which Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary surfer and swimmer, had helped to form.

[26] The club achieved remarkable success in a short time under Freeth's guidance, his swimmers claiming medals in both indoor and ocean competitions in the region.

[27] The following year, in 1917, Freeth was rehired part-time by the San Diego Rowing Club to prepare their swimmers for the upcoming Pacific Coast Championships at Coronado over July Fourth.

Individual swimmers like Charlie Shields and Elliot Burns managed second-place finishes in their respective events, but once again the rowing club came in last among the more established programs.

The United States had entered World War I in late April of that year, another challenge for Freeth in assembling a competitive team since many young men enlisted in the army and navy.

[28] Beyond training amateur competitive swimmers, Freeth also held workshops and lectures for the public to teach them various swimming strokes and basic lifesaving techniques.

Wherever Freeth lived and worked, he remained an advocate for swimming as a means to prevent the great loss of life due to drowning in bathhouses and beaches.

San Diego Rowing Club members Charles Weldon and Richard Barthelmess sent out a call in area newspapers to collect money to help Freeth during his illness.

measured by the higher and purer qualities of heart and soul.”[33] Because Freeth's family could not travel to San Diego for the memorial, they asked to have his body cremated and sent to Honolulu.

Directly, or indirectly, a great number of lives must stand to his credit, for he personally performed frequent rescues, several under such dangerous conditions that they won him medals for bravery.

"[35] Freeth's "watermanship" became what is known as the waterman tradition in Hawai`i and California where an individual demonstrates mastery of such varied ocean activities as swimming, diving, rowing, and surfing.

[36] Freeth's legacy as a swimming instructor includes teaching female swimmers like Lyba and Nita Sheffield during his time in Venice.

Freeth's students, like Santa Monica lifeguard and swimming instructor Frank Holborow, later taught others, and carried on the surfing tradition in California.

Kahanamoku lived much longer than Freeth and became popular due to his gold-medal performances in multiple Olympic Games and his Hollywood career in the 1920s.